Sorry I have been absent for a while, I am finishing up finals. And sorry if this post is not very insightful or interesting or frankly supplying any new information. I think my brain is temporarily devoid of any original thoughts. Hopefully a 24-hour recharge and I will be back on my game.
Vintage-inspired photography, especially if it is inspired by one particular person, is always a thin line to walk. On the one hand, when executed well, the shoot can be inspired, gorgeous, and the model will be the object of my envy/affection for weeks. But, if not done well, one risks looking like a cheap parody of a legend (cough cough Lindsay Lohan doing "the Last Sitting"). In my personal opinion, photoshoots that are inspired and then
reinterpreted by the photographer are the most gorgeous and the most successful. I think where Lindsay went wrong was that the photographer, Bert Stern (who is one of my favorites, by the way), chose to redo the Marilyn shoot pose by pose. They did the mechanics of the shoot, as opposed to capturing the spirit of the original shoot. I know that this shoot is almost a year old by now, but its been on my mind recently. I began comparing it in my mind to other person-inspired photo shoots that I've seen. It reminded me a little of the Glamour post I did a few ago, because it seemed like a lot of those girls studied the poses, the facial ticks, the mechanics of the women they were supposed to embody, as opposed to trying to get into the spirit of the person. One shoot that I think appropriately captured the spirit of a person was the shoot Kate Beckinsale did a while back for Mean magazine. She was embodying Anna Karena, and its one of the best photoshoots of this kind I have seen. I don't think Kate B looks a thing quite honestly like Miss Karena, but for some reason I got the vibe that she WAS being her. See, dear reader(s), it's all about the vibes.
Vintage-inspired photography, especially if it is inspired by one particular person, is always a thin line to walk. On the one hand, when executed well, the shoot can be inspired, gorgeous, and the model will be the object of my envy/affection for weeks. But, if not done well, one risks looking like a cheap parody of a legend (cough cough Lindsay Lohan doing "the Last Sitting"). In my personal opinion, photoshoots that are inspired and then reinterpreted by the photographer are the most gorgeous and the most successful. I think where Lindsay went wrong was that the photographer, Bert Stern (who is one of my favorites, by the way), chose to redo the Marilyn shoot pose by pose. They did the mechanics of the shoot, as opposed to capturing the spirit of the original shoot. I know that this shoot is almost a year old by now, but its been on my mind recently. I began comparing it in my mind to other person-inspired photo shoots that I've seen. It reminded me a little of the Glamour post I did a few ago, because it seemed like a lot of those girls studied the poses, the facial ticks, the mechanics of the women they were supposed to embody, as opposed to trying to get into the spirit of the person. One shoot that I think appropriately captured the spirit of a person was the shoot Kate Beckinsale did a while back for Mean magazine. She was embodying Anna Karena, and its one of the best photoshoots of this kind I have seen. I don't think Kate B looks a thing quite honestly like Miss Karena, but for some reason I got the vibe that she WAS being her. See, dear reader(s), it's all about the vibes. 
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